I have recently been looking at different ways to make a childrens book for the graphic arts project.
I could do one similar to the dream dictionary, or French fold.
Not neccessarily concentrating on the flocking design.

I have completed the Dream Dictionary. I was thinking about doing lino because that was something that I was familiar with and the outcome is usually successful. I was also thinking about using the foil card but I don't think that the images would have been as detailed as I would have liked.
Finally I decided to do screen prints. I used this method briefly last year and thought that I should incorporate this more into my work and not only use it for experiments.
I used the colours brown, yellow and grey instead of traditional black. A good effect was created because by using those colours it represented the dreams as vivid memories, not just one block colour.
Also for graphic arts I have been working on various pages. I realised that in a way the pages that I have designed are like my own version of graffiti. I want the pages that I design to continue to be colourful and visually appealing.
I have looked at work by Tony Berlant and McGuire, and I like the way a little colour has been incorporated with black and white.

5- entitled: Dissolvable Stitches

There are 8 images in total that I have been working on. These are some of my original images, which I have now changed so that some look more abstract while with others, the expressions have been change. I have done this by coming up with the idea of photocopying the images in different sizes and then reconstructing the image again

4- entitled: Finger Caught in Food blender

3- entitled: Diet Pepsi

2- entitled: Breast Implants

Dream Project 

1-entitled: Break dancing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He7Ge7Sogrk

More illustrations on the dream project. Focusing on essay relating to Surrealism. Interesting to find out the different artists that were around that time and find out the definitions of the imagery that was used in some of the pieces.
have not yrt had time to do experiments in the print room.

Dreams Project

Chosen 8 to illustrate. This includes the front cover. Two completed so far are "Breast Implants" and Dissolving Stitches". First is about having more luck with bigger breast implants and the second is about someone having dissolving stitches on an individuals mouth so that they don't tell a secret.
When all the images are completed I am going to scan them and experiment with on photoshop. Afterwards I will do experiments with different printing methods to see which one works best. More images soon to go up on Flickr.
Also continuing drawings for Graphic arts. Regarding map project there is a possibility that I could also scan the images before hand in and experiment.

(If sensitive look away)

The projects that we have been doing so far have enabled me to think about different ways of expressing art, art forms. I came across the picture of the burning monk. Even though this is not something that most people would do, a statement has been made. Expression is freedom whichever way round that phrase is said. Regarding the lengths that some of the monks went through, it is for me quite disturbing and I cannot say that I fully understand but, when you feel you have no other way to portray something to get your message across, you will do whatever it takes and make yourself heard. How many people nowadays have the confidence and the mindset to do something like that? Something that actually is significant and not just for show.....

Me as the hero in the play.
It went well but not according to plan. Working in a group can sometimes be difficult, attendance, co-operation, collaboration of ideas and the actual input.
Our costumes were simple and that was not a problem. I found not having something rehearsed that was concrete was a bit of a downfall for the group, but the members who were there on a regular basis tried to make the best of what was available. The idea with the cardboard was good but there was a lack of group members which made the organisation of the play a little difficult

other performances by illustration group

images from Illustration project

Work in progress.....

Yesterday as well as making the set a few of us were also working on what we wanted the our subtitles to say/ show because we are going to mime. We wanted to add a bit of humour to the "script as it were, especially because our writer Luke has not given us a story up to this point so we are having to improvise. We came up with the following:

(Act 1) I love you- You love me ….Your eyes twinkle like the stars, you’re the flower, I’m the tree. I’ll protect you if your with me “I’ll give YOU shade!”. Two star-crossed lovers, hand in hand side by side….WHAT could tear them apart…

(Act 2) The son’s that were sun’s shone with force….each one glistening in the sky bringing what they had to offer, one by one…the set their sun as the days went by with their mother guiding them along the way.

(Act 3) Mum has fallen asleep….sssshhhhhhh. The mischievous little sun’s took their chance to get their freedom and have their fun….changing the weather to a scorching heat….WHO can handle the heat!!!

(Act 4) Drum roll…..ta daaaaah! The hero has come to the rescue…big biceps, sweat pouring down, bulging 6 pack…You name it!!!! He will show no mercy and save the day seeing what happened to the earth

(Act 5) One surviving son….The god’s face turned beetroot red in anger, pupils enlarged. The soldiers terrified not knowing what to do, their legs trembling with fear BUT the hero is not afraid.. He WILL do whatever it takes to save the citizens

(Act 6) The lovers knowing that they did wrong went to earth willing to take the blame, surviving on the basics that they had a lot more of before. It almost felt like a contrast to heaven for them.

(Act 7) Day by day the hero’s wife got WRINKLY!!! The hero did not like this at ALL!!! He decided to do something about it. He knew that there was a medicine that he could get to restore this (well his) oldie’s good looks, which belonged to the god’s wife.


(Act 8) The wife took the medicine but OH MY!!!! Her body was telling her NNOOOO! She was as light as a feather and drifted up into the sky and flew towards the moon. The hero tried to chase her, but each step he took, the further she moved away from him.

Today we are making the set and is is coming together nicely. I designed my background and we have used brown/duck tape to hold all the cardboard together so that it will be able to satnd up firmly. We are also using double sided tape for the back. Tomorrow we will be bringing in acrylic paints for the rest of our backgropunds to be painted. Later we will sort out all the other animations and costumes.I will be posting some pictures on our progress also pictures to do with my "journey's and Environment's" project for graphic arts.

This is an illustration that I did for my project.
The aim was to do a line drawing showing what the headline was about. (Football Fan Brothers Die in Road Crash).
I focused on the main part of the story but I think that with the other three I will incorporate more images to make it more interesting.

There was a misunderstanding about the way the set was going to be built. At the moment we are in the middle of making it and it is going to be about 190 cm high.
Each of the four seasons are going to be painted on the wall of the middle of the set which resembles a cylinder.
We have cut out the main circle for the base and to make the main prop the height that we would like it to be we have stuck squares of cardboard together so that it will be easy to fold and put away.

Amir and Nick are going to be doing the illustrations for the scenes. We have decided to still have the subtitles (in bold and font not too large) but instead have it at the top of the cardborad which is going to be at the sides.

This is some of the work that I have been doing relating to my projects

Group members for myth project are:
Warren-The god's wife
Choon- hero's wife
Mya- The god
Shadia- Hero
Jack and Amir have not been given the part of a main character because thay have not really attended the planning sessions.

(The drawings and plans will be up on the blog in a few days).
For Monday we will be bringing in cardboard, tissue paper, torch and brown tape, also a miniture sculpture of what our set will look like and then we will be able to construct it into the actual size.

We decided that we are going to have props made out of cardboard. In the middle there will be a seperation and in there the scenes will be shown by a section of a wheel. The backdrop for the scenes will be represented by a season, the wheel will be divided into 4 and rotated as each new scene comes up. So the wheel is spinning showing that the story is progressing and time is moving on. We are going to have two windows at the front of the stage so that extra characters can be shown in there and also have a long strip going across so that we can have subtitles to add humour.

Warren is designing winter
Shadia- Autumn
Mya- Spring
Choon- Summer

Our group has come up with the following way of presenting our play because our script has not yet been written.

Scene 1, Act 1: The two lovers (backdrop winter). Real actors in the middle, extra characters on the side. There are going to be birds and clouds.

Scene 1, Act 2: (backdrop spring). Mother and son (10 sun's). Sun's who are son's also, hanging from strings.

Scene 2, Act3: (backdrop summer). Actual character acting as a tree and have citizens hanging from the tree because there is too much sun. all the son/ sun came down to earth at one time.

Scene 2, Act 4: (backdrop summer).

Scene 3, Act 5: The hero is punished by the god because he killed all the sun/ sons to protect the earth from the heat. The army will be in the window of the the set. There are going to be rain clouds to represent the anger of the gods.

We have decided that some of the characters wil have masks that will be painted with acrylic and made out of paper. The sides of the mask can be stuck to the face using double sided tape at the sides.

Scene 3, Act 6; (backdrop autumn). The couple are sent to earth as a punishment. (We will use card and paint it to represent the earth).

Scene 4, Act 7: (backdrop winter). The husband steals the medicine from the gods.

Scene 4, Act 8: (backdrop spring). as a punishment the wife is sent to the moon.

Myth Project

List of Equipment:
Cardboard Boxes
Brown, masking, duck,double sided tape
Torch
Tissue Paper
White T-shirts for costume design
String
Cardboard
Paints

The other exhibition that I saw was "100 Years, 100 Artists, 100 Works of Art". This exhibition was marking the 100th anniversary of the Roundel sign which was made in 1908.

There were a few pieces that I liked which included: "Inner Circle Portion" by Phillip Allen, This was oil on canvas with chewing gum stuck on it. I thought that it worked well because the design is something that you would definitely see when you go on the underground.
Untitled by "Rose Finn- Kelcey. A loaf of sliced bread with the roundel sign going all the way through.
"The Hut Project" underneath the image it says a man in a hat on a bicycle. You can see that when you look at the image because the blue line is cut out of the centre of the circle.
I also liked "All in one, one in all", by Mark Titchner. The sign for boys and girls.

There were some other pieces but I did not really think that they all related to the roundel sign.

I got a book of postcards by an artist called Jeremy Ville. I like his drawings because they are simplistic and remind me of Mr Men. I will use this style more for the graphic arts project.

i saw a book by Keith Van-Loen and in it there were pictures taken of different places that he had been to; train stations, events, stickers on cars.
Another book called "Song" was really terrible. It had not substance to it and I did not find it acceptable. The book was A5 size, landscape and on each page it says "La" and then on the 9th page it says "Repeat" and that is the last page of the book. I suppose it is up to interpretation. Designing a book can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be.

"Hit Rock Bottom"
and
"F Off"

"The Shit"
and
"Sorry Fork"

Doing a few drawings at the moment for our group myth.

Today I went to two exhibitions. One at the Concrete Hermit at Club Row. It was called "Tough Cookies Ain't Sweet", by Julia (Juju). I was looking for ideas on drawing styles and presentation of wrok. I liked the various pieces because there was humour to them. She uaes paper cut outs, textiles and much more. Her work has been exhibited in many places such ad New York and Berlin.
I will put some images up relating to this. Some of my favourites were, "Boxer", "Have a Smoke", "Be Smart", "The Shit", "Mr OMG and WTF" (the images consisted of an exclamation mark and a question mark.

I plan to do some photo collages because I don't normally make them and it is also a good way to experiment. I am going to continue with the illustrations from the journey's and environments project and then see where I can go from there.

I am thinking about making some stickers by initially using etching and then transforming the image or make a book and incorporate that idea. I would like the work/finished product to have a little element of graffiti. Lino printing would be good for that but not all of my ideas are concrete as yet. If possible I plan to incorporate a bit of everything without things being overcrowded.

I will be posting some work relating to my personal myth and also the myth that out group chose. I researched myths as a whole and how they came about and also what can be considered to be a myth. They can be told in many forms and each culture has different types of myths and different ways of telling them.

I had heard things such as: If the wind blows too hard then your face will stay the way that it is.
This was usually said to someone who was frowning or sad.
Ther are many myths including ones about: wizards, mummies, Babayaga and Vasalisa the Fair, Lockness monster, The Green Children of the Woolpit.

I looked up Greek myths and found out about Zeus and Kronos and his to brothers.
My myth was about Zeus bored one day and as a result made two people start to argue for entertainment. He saw a nymph called Io and fell in love with her but did not want his wife to know. As Zeus was in control of the land, he made dark clouds form so that his wife wouldn't find him but she did. She turned Io into a cow and sent her away. Zeus in turn went to get her back.

I looked at different images of graffiti alphabets because even
though I like the look of some types, I sometimes don't understand the writing.

Can be interpreted in many ways. For example in other cultures such as chinese, the hollow square by itself means mouth.

(Click the images to enlarge and read text)

Work that I have been doing so far.

This is a photo of my "What are you Like?" project.
I called it "Favourites".

I decided to get images of things that I liked from the internet, draw them so that I could have it being more personal to me. For example, lasange, giraffes and a school that I went to.
Afterwards, I enlarged and photocopied my images and then I made them into stencils and used gold paint on a navy blue background so that the images could stand out. That was significant because these are some of my favourite things, which I obviously like or enjoy more than others.
I also used gold pen to write the list. This image is a bit bigger than A3. The most important thing regarding this piece is that it reflects me, and I believe it does.
I like the orange border, I feel that ie brings out the images more.

Firstly

Over the past couple of weeks I have been going to different museums and gallery's- some that I have not been to before. It's inspiring to see artists work and think about how you can adopt something of theirs and make it your own.

I have also been practising different drawing techniques with different mediums to see what I like and also what works best for me.
I am trying to break away form the "neat and tidy" look all the time, also trying to make thing more simple, because sometimes more of a message can be received.

I saw a couple of artist's work recently including: Cy Twombly, some from the Jerwood Drawing Prize, "Dreaming with My Eye's Open" at the Novas Gallery in Camden and the latest exhibition I have seen was at the Dulwich Picture Gallery- "What are you like?".

With all of these artists I have a big combination of ideas and and reaching out of the comfort zone of not working bigger than A4 sometimes.

For Illustration I have just completed a painting relating to the "What are you Like?" project.
I will be doing illustrations for four headlines which include: "Football Fan Brother's Die in Road Crash", "Angie buys Knife for Mad, six". I am going to see if I can incorporate some surrealist elements.

Graphic arts, my project is based on journey's and environments. Mine and other people's and what is acknowledged as a result. Looking at things like graffiti, pictures, sculptures/ installations, even what is collected on a journey.